“John Doe” is episode seven of season nine of The X-Files.
Day One, and Doggett comes to on the floor of a rundown building as someone is stealing one of his shoes. The man runs off and Doggett, who isn’t in great shape, follows. He doesn’t know where he is, but it looks to be a Mexican town. He sees the man and is wrestling for his shoe when a police car arrives. The man calls them over, but the officer demands papers from Doggett – he has none – and his name. He doesn’t know.
Day Two, and Doggett uses his remaining shoe to hit the bars of the group cell he’s in. Then puts the shoe back on. Another prisoner thinks that’s funny. He didn’t say anything before because Doggett wasn’t funny before. Doggett wants to know where he is; the other, Domingo, tells him – Sangradura. They are in Mexico. As Doggett doesn’t know his own name, Domingo decides to call him One Shoe. He asks Doggett what he knows. Doggett says he’s getting out. Domingo doubts it, without money to bribe the cops. Yes, Doggett could call the US Embassy who could get him home. But where is home? And is going there in his best interests? Americans who wind up here come here to disappear.
Doggett has brief memories of being in bed and of his son.
Day Eight, and Domingo is released. He wants Doggett to come with him; no-one is coming and Domingo has a job for him. Outside, Doggett walks off. Domingo calls him back and his friend, Nestor, garbs him. Domingo says he owns Doggett and Nestor puts a gun to his back. Doggett disarms him, empties it and throws it away.
Doggett finds the man who took his shoe and asks what else he took. A skull charm with a broken loop. The man calls him ‘Desaparecido’.
Doggett enters the bar where Domingo and Nestor are drinking. He asks what the job is; it seems Domingo is a coyote. He says Doggett starts tomorrow and there’s a room upstairs, giving him some money. Doggett asks if Domingo knows what the skull means. He says he doesn’t. When Doggett is gone, Nestor tells Domingo this is a bad idea; they don’t know what Doggett wants. Domingo says he wants the same as all the rest; to remember. Clearly, they do know what the skull means. In his room, Doggett sees scars on his head and a Marine tattoo. Outside, a man with a bracelet of skull charms is watching.
Day Twelve, and Skinner and Scully are meeting Kersh. A border camera caught Doggett. They want to extend the task force south of the border. Kersh says they’re disbanding it. They’re had agents scouring Texas, which was wasted effort. Turn it over to the Mexican federal police. Kersh does want to find Doggett but resources are taxed by national security concerns. Skinner says Reyes is in San Antonio; she was raised in Mexico and can help. Kersh agrees. From this side of the border.
Reyes is at the FBI field office in San Antonio and is speaking to a Mariano Molina and his lawyer. Molina says he runs a farm dealership; in Spanish Reyes suggests he ships drugs. A bank executive Molina knows disappeared and Doggett was looking for him when he vanished. She bets he came to Molina. Molina doesn’t remember anyone called Doggett. Reyes says the executive laundered money for Molina’s cartel until something went wrong and the cartel made him disappear. Where is he? Unless he’s under arrest, Molina is leaving.
Doggett is having memories of his wife and child, but they don’t mean anything. He tries to find out who he is through the Marines. Domingo makes him think he’s a man wanted for murder. Skinner and Scully, despite the task force being closed down, aren’t stopping looking for Doggett either.